Headmasters should have more power, and schools should be allowed to be
different, after decades of reforms that have failed disadvantaged children,
according to a critical report on Scotland’s schools.

It warns that Scottish education is no longer world-beating and advocates a move away from a uniform approach towards greater diversity, with more decision-making at a local level and less council control.

The Commission on School Reform found that an estimated one in five school leavers had few or no qualifications, and poor skills in basic literacy and numeracy.

It wants schools that are enthusiastic about change to be allowed to progress more quickly to become “ambassadors” for schools adopting reforms at a slower pace.

It also wants senior staff to be able to take decisions and control budgets, and suggests that in many cases councils are too involved in day-to-day management.

Decisions should be tailored to the needs of the children in each case, instead of conforming to an across-the-board policy. That might mean recruiting talented teachers to work in deprived areas by offering financial incentives.

The commission would also like schools to have the freedom to specialise in areas like vocational skills or arts or science.

But it ruled out any form of academic selection and rejected a move towards academy schools, which have been introduced in England with funding from central, rather than local, government.

Chaired by educationalist Keir Bloomer, the body was set up in 2011 by the think tanks Reform Scotland and the Centre for Scottish Public Policy.

It has produced 37 recommendations covering areas including the development of the new Curriculum for Excellence and a centre dedicated to improving outcomes in deprived areas.

Mr Bloomer said: “There is an assumption in Scotland that our education system has always been, and is now, among the world's best. There may have been a time when that was true but unfortunately it is not true now.

"Scotland's schools do an excellent job. The standard of education they provide is high and it is remarkably consistent across the country. But they are no longer world leading. If we want to be back again in the position of being the world's best then there is no alternative but to make some quite significant changes.

"The role of government and its agencies is strategic leadership. It is not micro-management. The role of local authorities is about co-ordination and about championing the interests of the individual child and family. The role of schools, increasingly, has to be about innovation.”

He said that if schools were more empowered the result would be a “richness and diversity in the system which it currently lacks”.

Elsewhere, it found that in reading, almost half of the countries overtaking Scotland were developing countries.

It also said that the fact many children began to fall behind in early secondary had been apparent during more than 40 years of reforms that had failed to address disadvantage.

It criticised the weak implementation of new ideas, saying the launch of Standard Grades was so delayed that the first candidates were the children of the children for whom they were intended, while the Curriculum for Excellence had taken a decade to reach the point of students sitting new exams.

Hugh Henry, for Scottish Labour, said the report was “right to challenge the complacency about our international reputation”, adding: “No-one can argue with the devolution of more responsibility to schools, but the big issue is one of effective leadership at a school and departmental level.”

Michael Russell, the education minister, insisted Scottish education was good and getting better, but said the report contained “interesting” recommendations and he planned to meet Mr Bloomer to discuss building on “what has already been achieved”.

He added: “I am pleased the commission has recognised that Curriculum for Excellence provides the framework to continue those improvements.

"I believe we have the right elements in place to secure a truly excellent education system and we are making progress in that regard.”